JANUARY 1, 2000

Williams to try Button?

THE BMW Williams team is due to unveil its new car and driver line-up on January 10 in Munich and although there is speculation that the team may decide to keep Alex Zanardi for another season, our sources suggest that this is not very likely and that the team is still looking at signing up a young driver as partner to Ralf Schumacher. The obvious candidate is Brazilian Bruno Junqueira - the Williams test driver - but we believe that the team will test British Formula 3 sensation Jenson Button before any decision is made. Button did an impressive job in a brief test for the Prost team just before Christmas and Williams may want to see just how quick he can be before making a final decision about the 2000 driver line-up.

It is possible, therefore, that the team will not nominate a second driver until after the next test and that there will be no driver announcement made at the event in Munich. It is also possible that the team will announce that Zanardi will continue - as it cannot do otherwise until a severance agreement is reached between the team and the Italian.